Osh at a GlanceOsh has been a student city, a center of education,science and technology for the last one thousand years.Osh, a mountaneous city located in heart of the historically famous Ferghana valley. Second largest city in Kyrgyzstan. Osh is administrative centre of the southwestern Kyrgyzstan and capital of the Osh province, near the border with Uzbekistan. It is separated from Bishkek by high mountain ranges.

Osh sits on a major highway from Bishkek through Dushanbe and Khujand in Tajikistan. Coal, lead and zinc mines surround the city, There are several flights a day between Bishkek and Osh – There is also the spectacular Bishkek-Osh highway and then continues past the Toktogul reservoir and hydroelectric power station. The Ak-Buura river runs through the city North to South and to the west is mountain ‘Sulaiman Too’ (“Sulaiman’s mountain”), which dominates the city. At the top is a flagpole and a mosque built in 1497 by the 14 year old Babur who had been recently crowned the King of the Ferghana Valley and later went on to become the founder of the Mughal dynasty in India and Babur’s house on the top of the mountain. This is a small oriental style house that was built by the emperor Babur Also worth visiting, the 16th century built Rabat Abdul Khan Mosque – which is one of the main mosques and receives about 1000 constant visitors everyday and CENTRAL IMAM AL-BUKHARI MOSQUE is one of the largest and oldest mosques in the Central Asia.

There are a lot of places for refreshment activities, a sports stadium, sports centers, swimming pools, billiard clubs, winter sports centre with skiing tracks and other winter sports, a number of cinemas with latest English,Russian and Indian movies. Spare time can be spent in Night clubs, disco bars, drama theatres, concerts of famous Russian and Kyrgyz singers are often held at concert halls of the city. There are a lot of café, restaurants in the city, with fast food, Italian, Russian, uzbic, Chinese, Pakistani and Indian cousine. As Osh is a mountaineous city, a hill station, summers are very beautiful. People come from other cities to Osh to spend their vacations and enjoy the beauty of nature. Weather in osh is continental with temperature in summer ranges from +15 C to +30 C and in winter ranges from – 5 C to +15 C. There are the boulevards and parks with lots of trees.

The Russians came into the region during the 19 th century, and after that life style in Osh is heavily influenced by the Russian way of life and Soviet architecture. People in osh now prefer to live in apartments. There are multi storey buildings with apartments in the city. About 80 percent population is living in apartments and 20 percent in private houses called Dacha.

The city is especially famous for its bazar, which is about 2000 years old and ever since has been on the same place on the two sides of Syr-Darya river. There you find just everything, from the vegetables, fruits and nuts the Ferghana valley is so famous for, over food, to clothes, household, souvenirs and so on. Just go searching!

Osh is definitely a city where you could walk around for hours, just to get to know the culture and try to feel it yourself. Reputedly three thousand years old. Osh is one of the oldest city in Central Asia. In the middle ages Osh was a point of intersection for commerce from India and China to Europe. One of the branches of a Great Silk Way – the Major Trade of an old age passed through the city connecting East with West.

Other important page of a history of city Osh is connected with a name of the representative of Timurid’s dynasty Zaheriddin Muhammad Babur (1483-1530.) Babur knew the city Osh well and had left many flatter lines about it.He built a mosque in Osh and his house is still present today.He was born in Andijan (45 KM away from the Osh) In the middle ages,with Bukhara and Samarkand, Osh was the largest and advanced city of the Central Asia and in 1762 it joined the Khanate of Kokand and became on of the six trading centres with the Khanate.

Assimilated into Tsarist Russia, the city expanded onto the left bank of the river and European style houses started to appear. In short, Osh is a modern city with an ancient background. We’ll be glad to see You in our picturesque city.